Red Acoustic Guitar
by dream-maker016
Summary: She hasn't told him of first plane crashes and imaginary peanut butter, nor of heroin withdrawals and lullabies played on a red guitar. He doesn't know of arms keeping her safe in the dark, moving only to quiet a child that may as well have been his. And she tells him, wishing the memories could end happily, with an eventual rescue plane, and Charlie beside her telling the story.


**A/N: What could have happened if the Oceanic 6 had been 7. Claire didn't go crazy and left with her baby and the rest of them, only to find a familiar face on a person she'd never met before waiting. Takes place just after they land. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Lost.**

…

She knew it was him.

The minute she'd stepped off the small private plane, she knew who the dark haired man standing at the back of the small crowd was. She wasn't quite sure why he was there, as the news that his brother was not one of the Oceanic Sven, as the public had taken to calling them, must have reached him. Still, she knew it was only right that she be the one to deal with this. She clutched her son tighter to her chest with one arm, wrapping the other hand around the cool metal ring she'd found in Aaron's crib right before they left. The last tangible reminder she had of Charlie Pace… until she met his brother.

During their time on the island, Claire had heard countless stories of Liam Pace, the rockstar older brother that Charlie had adored for the majority of their relationship. He'd been jokingly described as tall, dark and handsome by Charlie. She recalled now, in that single second, all the wonderful memories Charlie had shared with her. Soon after were the bad ones. She remembered how, despite what Charlie said after his spiritual revelation, his heroin addiction had started partly in due to Liam making him feel worthless. And it had almost started again after Claire had made him feel worthless. She shook away the tainted memories, because the bad times almost didn't even matter anymore. Because if there was one thing in this life she was sure of, it was that Charlie Pace…

…Charlie Pace was a hero.

Jack stood behind her, and she felt a gentle hand go to her shoulder as he followed her eyes. Jack and Liam locked eyes, and Jack looked as if he'd been slapped across the face. True, Liam and Charlie didn't share many physical features. But through the thin glasses perched on Liam's nose, stormy blue eyes shined in a way Claire had only ever seen in one other person. The light was muted by despair for the brief moment, but Claire took a step toward him nonetheless. No matter what Liam Pace was here for, she knew it was only right she be the one to give it to him. And the cold ring burned as yet another testament to this thought. She felt Jack's light touch on her arm holding her back.

"Claire… who is that man? And why does he make me think of-" Jack cut himself off, glancing down at the petite blonde in concern. Claire looked up at Jack.

"Charlie." Claire finished for him, a tear that she refused to let slip welling in her eye. "I'll talk to him."

"Let me come with you. Just at first." Jack's offer was only a suggestion, but the tone clearly left little room for argument. Claire just nodded, adjusting Aaron in her arms and quickly making her way over. Jack was right behind her, and naturally the first to speak.

"Excuse me, are you Liam Pace?" Jack himself had heard the name uttered by Charlie quite a few times, but Claire gave him a look of reprimanding.

"Of course he is Jack, he looks just like Charlie always…" Claire trailed off, looking away. At the name Charlie however, Liam perked up.

"Yes, I am. And that's why I'm here. I was just hoping… well you never did disclose the name of the two who died after the plane crash and…" Liam trailed off, and Claire nodded.

"Right. We have a lot to talk about." Claire told him. Liam nodded, placing a hand in his pocket and closing them around his car keys. He opened his mouth to speak, but Jack cut him off with an incredulous look to Claire.

"Claire, we talked about this." Jack warned, but Claire released a glare on him that drew him up short.

"Yes, but this is _Charlie's _brother. We know he can keep a secret and… it's his family, Jack! I'm sorry, but this isn't your decision." All at once, almost immediately at the mention of Charlie's name, Jack's entire demeanor softened. He glanced up, seeing his mother looking around desperately. He took a step away.

"Okay. I have to go, but we'll keep in touch." Jack said helplessly. Claire turned to Liam quickly.

"I promise I will tell you everything, but would you mind holding him just for a quick second?" Liam looked shocked, but nodded almost immediately. He fit Aaron into his arms with an ease that told Claire he must have a child of his own. Claire took a few long strides and threw her arms around Jack. She buried her head in his shoulder. "Please, Jack. I know we're off the island, but Aaron and I still need you. I think he was just starting to be able to say Uncle Jack." Claire teased, knowing her infant was still nowhere near speaking. He allowed her a small smile.

"Of course, Claire, of course." Jack assured her, and she smiled. She gave a quick round of hugs to the other survivors, receiving phone numbers and addresses. Sun and Kate returned with her to Liam to give Aaron one more goodbye. Liam gave him up willingly, giving Sun a smile that made her stop short.

"Who is this, Claire?" Sun asked curiously. Claire knew Sun and Kate had seen it too, the smile and the sparkle that made them all want to cry. Kate put a shaking hand over her mouth before an answer was even given.

"This is someone we are going to tell the truth, because he deserves to know everything. He's-"

"-Charlie's brother." Kate finished along with Claire, and Liam raised his eyebrows.

"Did you all know my baby brother well, then?" Liam wondered, looking around at them all. Kate let a lone tear slip down her cheek. The accent was so similar. She nodded, giving Claire a hug and pressing one more kiss to Aaron's forehead before disappearing into the crowd in the general direction of Jack. Sun handed Aaron back to Claire, taking a step back. Before she left, she summed up the answer to Liam's question in one sentence, in a way that Claire never could. In a way that was entirely true.

"Charlie saved us."

…

Claire was sitting in Liam Pace's house with tears streaming down her face freely. Liam's wife, Karen, was watching Aaron out in the yard while his daughter played on the swing. Claire sat at the table with Liam and told him everything about the island. About the black smoke, the hatch and Desmond, all the people there, even about the polar bear. She tells him how the plane broke apart in mid air, falling in two places on the island. The middle section landed on the beach, and forty eight of them survived along with some others in the tail section that they were joined by later. He knows now that the plane found was as fake as the story released by the survivors. She told him that they'd been on the island for months and had gotten rescued by a man with a helicopter taking off from a freighter of people after Ben Linus- she's told him of Ben Linus, of course.

She has yet, however, to tell him any stories. She hasn't told him of first plane crashes and imaginary peanut butter, nor of heroin withdrawals and lullabies played on a red acoustic guitar. Charlie's brother doesn't know about near deaths by hanging or of killing a man to protect a woman and child he's only just met. She hasn't said anything of Jack stepping up to lead or Locke and Boone's adventures, nor of Vincent the yellow lab that was still back there with Rose and Bernard. Liam, sensing the emotions coming with the more in depth part of the story, had stepped away to make them some tea.

Claire found herself staring across the dining room at the collage of pictures hanging on the wall. And there, the face she hasn't seen in what feels like ages. The only one she desperately wanted to see with her right now. Claire finds herself standing, making her slow way towards the framed photographs. A tear slides down her cheek without her permission as she extends a shaking hand out to gently brush the picture of Charlie's face with a trembling finger. He's beaming, she sees, and expression Charlie Pace wore often even stranded on a mysterious island with a group of strangers in the middle of nowhere. This is beaming like she only saw a handful of times, she realizes. Charlie has one arm wrapped around an equally happy Liam, the other around a new, pristine red guitar. A guitar that was sitting back on a tropical island in a makeshift home they'd once shared, an arrow through its neck.

She burst into wild sobs, trying to quiet the unsuccessfully. The flood gates broke again for the first time since Hurley had brought news of his death to her. Liam had sped back into the room, two cups of scalding tea clutched in his hands, immediately after hearing the painful noise. He wasn't quite sure what it was until he set the cups down and approached the short blonde from behind. He saw the picture she was staring at and rested a hand on her shoulder. She spun around, shocked. He smiled sympathetically.

"I take it you and my brother were a bit more than just acquaintances, yeah?"

Claire gave him a tearful nod, wiping her tears and taking her seat once more. She grimaced apologetically.

"I'm sorry for breaking down like that. It's just that seeing him again… I am completely and absolutely in love with your brother, Liam, and I know he felt the same way. Not only because his face betrayed every single one of his feelings every time he looked at me, but because… he died for me and my- our- son." Liam's mouth dropped in shock.

"Aaron is Charlie's?" Liam frowned, trying to work out the math. Claire shook her head.

"Not biologically, no- I was eight months pregnant when we got to the island. But Charlie is the only real father he has ever, or will ever have. Aaron's biologic dad ran away scared when the going got tough, but Charlie… it was effortless. Charlie was there when I gave birth in the middle of the jungle, he was there at night when Aaron wouldn't sleep and I was just so exhausted… Charlie was there through everything. And the way he and that little boy loved each other… god, it was easy as breathing. I sometimes got jealous because it seemed like Charlie was a better parent than me." Claire laughed sadly. Liam smiled, because the Charlie she was describing seemed like the one he grew up with, before the heroin and before everything went to hell.

"That sounds like the Charlie I used to know. Except last time I saw him, a few hours before he got on that plane, he was a complete mess with a heroin addiction to top it off. I think you should probably start from the beginning." Liam suggested, settling into his chair.

So she did. She started with Charlie reassuring her the first night after the crash, to helping her with her luggage the day after. Claire told him how Charlie had been the first to sign up for multiple quests of trekking through the jungle to try to help. She enunciated how Charlie hadn't left her side when she passed out from heat exhaustion, even though they barely knew one another at the time. She told Liam in great detail of the John Locke that had helped Charlie kick heroin once and for all and of the doctor slash leader slash close friend Jack Shephard that had been there to help him through the withdrawals. A smile stretched across her face as she told the story of Charlie Pace and his imaginary peanut butter. Liam stared at her in horror when she told him of how Charlie had been hung and dead before Jack was able to resuscitate him. And before it all goes to hell, she tells him of lullabies played on a red acoustic guitar, and of funny faces made to a screaming infant. She tells him of arms around her keeping her safe in the dark night, only moving to quiet a baby that might as well be his so that its mother can get some rest. Tears stream down once more when she regretfully whispers the tale of their separation by her hatred and disbelief. They both smile still at the fact that it was only their Charlie who would bring a vaccine first tested on himself to a girl furious with him just because he truly believed she should have it. And after Liam knows about holding hands at funerals and kissing after explosions and all the good times after, it seems like hours have passed. And maybe they had. Claire almost can't bring herself to continue the story.

And she wishes she didn't have to. She wished it ended there, with happy times on a far away island continuing, a plane eventually finding them and this conversation happening in a whole new light, a time of happy reminiscing and meeting with Charlie beside her and his calloused hand wrapped around hers. She wishes for that more than anything.

Still, she tells him about Desmond Hume and his flashes. She tells him how the first time, he'd gotten struck by lightning protecting her and Aaron. The second, he drowned trying to save her. The third, he broke his neck trying to get a bird for her. She tells him how Desmond saved him every single time. But the last time, Charlie didn't want to be saved.

"Desmond told him that if he went down to the underwater station and turned off the switch, he was going to drown. But that… if he did… Desmond saw Aaron and I getting onto a helicopter. Charlie did it, without telling anyone what Desmond saw. Knowing what was going to happen, Charlie turned the switch off and drowned so that Aaron and I could get off that island." Claire choked back a sob, and Liam's eyes were full of sorrow. Claire took a folded paper out out of her pocket, water damaged but miraculously still readable. She handed it over to Liam after unfolding it carefully. "Desmond said he'd written this for me before they went out there. Said Charlie called them his greatest hits."

Liam read the events carefully, smirking at some and smiling nostalgically at others. At the very last one, Liam raised his eyes to meet Claire's in surprise. "My brother was really in love with you, Claire."

"I know." Claire answered, Her gaze fell to her folded hands. "I didn't deserve it."

Liam reached across the table and laid his hands over hers. He took a deep breath. "If anything, Claire, after what you've told me… you saved him."

"Thank you, Liam. There's also this." Claire started, reaching a hand into her pocket and pulling out the ring Charlie had left for Aaron. Liam caught his breath. "Charlie left this in Aaron's crib before he went down there."

"Claire, did Charlie ever tell you what this ring meant?" Liam asked softy. Claire nodded.

"He said it was passed down in your family, so I thought you'd want it back-" she started to explain, but Liam shook his head and effectively cut her off.

"Yes. Claire, we pass this ring to our first born."

Claire was speechless. She lowered the hand that was holding the ring out to Liam, looking out the window at Aaron sitting in Karen's arms. She didn't say anything. She didn't have to.

"That means Charlie considered Aaron his own. Which in turn means… welcome to the family, baby sister." Liam smiled. Claire immediately stood up and threw her arms around Liam. He felt her tears leaking onto his shoulder, though he didn't mind in the least. He and Claire progressed outside. Before they walked out the door, however, Liam took the ring from her and threaded it onto a chain that Claire then hooked around her neck. He shut the door behind him, giving her a wink. "For safe keeping, until the turnip head gets a bit bigger."

Claire smiled widely, because she knew Liam didn't even realize the significance of what he'd just said. Karen handed Aaron to Claire as soon as they'd reached them, saying how he'd missed his mommy. Claire held him tight and whispered in his ear. "Mommy missed you… and Daddy does too."

She approached Liam again, who gave no indication he'd overheard except for a small, knowing smile. She had one more thing to discuss with him.

"Charlie had a best friend on the island. His name was Hurley- well, Hugo Reyes. And Hurley told me something, before we got off of that plane. He said Charlie used to tell him that if they ever, 'got off this bloody rock,' as he'd put it, that he swore he would marry me, even if he had to spend his whole life working to be, 'worthy of me.'" Claire quoted, and Liam shook his head sadly. Sounded just like Charlie. Claire hesitantly continued. "Though he really must have been daft, because I would have said yes in an instant no matter what. And later today, I'm going to write up Aaron's birth certificate. If you wouldn't mind, I'd like him to be named Aaron Pace."

Liam smiled widely. He answered as if it were obvious. "Do you need a ride there?"

Claire looked relieved at his immediate acceptance of her idea. Liam continued, "Claire and Aaron Pace. I get the feeling my brother would like the sound of that."

Claire nodded, pacing away from him a little bit. Liam went over to talk with his wife while Claire sat on the front steps of their porch. She adjusted the blanket around Aaron, pressing a kiss to her baby's forehead. She fingered the ring hanging around her neck with a sad smile. To both herself and their child, she muttered, "Yeah, I get the feeling he would."


End file.
